Thailand's telecommunications regulator said on July 3 that it expected to issue long-awaited licences for the third-generation (3G) mobile services by the end of this year.
The regulator has hired a team of experts to draft qualification criteria for licences, which should take a few months, National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) chairman Choochart Promphrasid told Reuters.
"Right after it's done, we should be able to issue the licences," Choochart said. NTC would also consider how many 3G licences would be appropriate for the Thai market, where more than 6 in 10 people have a phone, and how to allocate them, he said.
Issuing 3G licences has been delayed for several years because the process has been strewn with political obstacles. The 3G licences are a key step in reforming the sector because operators will pay licence fees instead of paying a portion of their revenues to two state-owned firms for the right to operate networks they build and paid for, as they do now.
Private operators have long complained the system is unfair as some pay less than others and they have asked the NTC and the Information, Communications and Techonology Ministry to help solve the problem.
Thailand has more than 43 million mobile users, or 68 phones for 100 people, compared with around 80 in Malaysia and more than 100 in Singapore. Top three mobile operators are Advanced Info Service, Total Access Communication and True Move, a subsidiary of True Corp.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.